Terror suspect also charged with soliciting murder

Undercover agent was alleged target

August 29, 2013|By Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune reporter

A west suburban teenager accused of plotting to set off a bomb outside a downtown bar was indicted Thursday on new charges that he solicited the murder of an undercover FBI agent after his arrest last fall.

Adel Daoud, 19, was charged with one count each of attempted murder of a federal agent, murder-for-hire and obstruction of justice.

The target of the alleged plot was an undercover FBI agent who had posed as a terrorist in New York and supplied Daoud with what he thought was an explosive device to use in a terrorist attack in Chicago, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Daoud was arrested last September as he stood in a Loop alley, punching the trigger of the fake bomb, authorities said.

While he was being held without bail in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, Daoud plotted the murder to keep the undercover agent from testifying at trial, according to the indictment. The charges alleged that a person connected to Daoud used a cellphone Nov. 28 with the intent of the murder being committed in return for payment.

Daoud came under FBI scrutiny in 2011 after posting messages online about killing Americans, according to a criminal complaint filed against him last year. FBI analysts posing as terrorists exchanged messages with Daoud and eventually got him to meet with the undercover agent, who was described as a "cousin" interested in waging jihad.

Over the next several months, Daoud and the undercover agent met several times in the Chicago area and discussed potential targets for an attack, according to the charges. In one meeting in Villa Park last August, Daoud allegedly told the agent he wanted to maximize the carnage so he would feel like he "accomplished something."

"If it's only like five, 10 people, I'm not gonna feel that good," the charges quoted Daoud as saying. "I wanted something that's … massive. I want something that's gonna make it in the news like tonight."

Daoud faces a potential life sentence if convicted on the terrorism charges. He is scheduled for trial in April.

The murder solicitation charges came just days after the judge overseeing Daoud's case ruled his lawyers are not entitled to know whether the terrorism investigation was sparked by the controversial government surveillance program recently exposed by Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor.

In her order Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman said she agreed with prosecutors who argued they are not required to disclose whether the Daoud investigation has its roots in the spying programs.